Have i blown up my PC ?

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

Help ! I have a quite old tower PC. I just plugged in a dodgy usb lead ( i now know) and the pc shut down. On rebooting apart from the fan going full speed nothing else seems to be happening. I have tried this a few times now. I took the cover off and after removing 8 ton of dust there appears to be no service items in there. Any idea what i may have done/blown. The PC is at least 8 years old and nothing special was on it so its not the end of the world if it doent get fixed.

---------- Post Auto-Merged at 17:08 ---------- Previous post was made at 16:43 ----------

Just noticed there is no power to the dvd & floppy drive (thats how old it is)

 

[steptoe]

floppy drive

did you buy that off Deke? I sold that to him in 1987 and I did say no warranty, so its not down to me.! :|

 

[Barx]

Quite possibly screwed your power supply. Can't remember if there are fuses inside it to check.

 

[Sidewinder]

No fuses in the ones I have had, though, that is not to say that they are all like that.

Start by disconnecting things that are not needed, floppy, CD sound card etc.

See if that helps, else I would try another PSU.

Remember that you have not yet lost anything on your HDD's.

 

[NozSpark]

If you think you've toasted the PSU there are some online testing guides or you could just take the PSU into a local independant computer shop and they should be able to test it

 

[steptoe]

I could send you a basicish PSU if you want to try it,

check what wattage your current PSU is, and I'll look see what the one I have is and send it to you if its the same (or mines bigger) [snigger!]

 

[batty]

They are quite cheap PSU's I paid

 

[Ray4438]

Could also be the memory as you say the fan is working so more likely psu is working.

If fan is powering on and there is no post bios showing on screen I would try other memory in it as lead could have knackered it if there are two memory cards in the machine take one out at a time and try to power up.

 

[springcrocus]

Take off one of the power leads to the hard drive or CD drive and check for 5v DC from red to black and 12v DC from yellow to black. If both voltages are present, then there is a 99% chance that either the processor or the motherboard has been damaged. If either voltage is absent, just get a cheap PSU rated the same or higher than your existing one.

When I used to fix computers this was a fairly regular problem.

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

I have 5.10v dc red-black & 12.10v dc yellow-black so it aint worth fixing. Now do i but a new tower pc or a laptop ??? I have a new large monitor and a laptop so maybe a replacement pc would be best.

Only old invoices estimates etc over 5 years old were on the hard drive. If i get a new pc is it a simple case of plugging the old hard-drive into the new pc to transfer any data ?

 

[Andy™]

If i get a new pc is it a simple case of plugging the old hard-drive into the new pc to transfer any data ?

yes, providing the HDD isnt damaged (unlikely from what yo have said)

 

[philbas]

But very likely you will have to use the old hard-drive as a slave, it will not boot a new system if you just plug it in as the master drive

 

[NozSpark]

Slips,

You cannot tell if a PSU is working or not just by checking the 5V and 12V outputs

Have a look at this link or search for "testing ATX psu", you have to kid the PSU into thinking it's been turned on!

How To Manually Test a Power Supply With a Multimeter

 

[remustered]

If you do decide to bin it after your diagnosing ....try morgan computers....great line in cheap pc/laptops etc...they do end of line and surplus gear....used them dozens of times..recommend. ; -)

Btw you can get cheap hdd cases that will let you use old hdd in usb port as portable/ backup storage...just make sure you get right size/ type...probably 3.5" ide in your case?

 

[OnOff]

99% certain you will have a 3.5" IDE hard drive. Modern tower will be SATA and the connections for a start on the back of the two types are different. Your new SATA motherboard MAY have provision to connect the older SAT drives but possibly not. As above you can get an "enclosure" into which your old IDE drive will fit then connect to your new pc via a USB lead. Something like this:

StarTech External IDE Hard Drive Enclosure Hi Speed.. | Ebuyer.com

or if your new tower has no IDE channels something like this:

StarTech Bi-Directional SATA IDE Adapter Converter | Ebuyer.com

or EVEN cheaper route:

Xenta SATA TO IDE Dongle (Connect IDE Drive To SATA.. | Ebuyer.com

Ditto above about the psu I've a spare 400W one you can have if desperate.

 

[Robojin]

If the fan is spinning then it's possible that the 5v rail has gone (used by USB), but on the odd occasion the CMOS memory (stores the date, and list of hardware) can stop a PC from starting POST (Power On Self Test) look for the coin battery on the motherboard and pop it out for a second or two (ensure mains lead is out too), this will clear the settings, you will need to reset dates etc